What is Republic Act No. 10175?

On 12 September 2012, President Aquino signed the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10175), An Act defining cybercrime, providing for prevention, investigation, suppression and the imposition of sanctions for and for other purposes.

Its original objective was to penalize acts such as cybersex, child pornography, identity theft and the country’s unsolicited electronic communication. RA 10175 punishes offenses related to content such as cybersex, child pornography and libel committed via a computer system. It also penalizes unwanted commercial communication or content that sells or advertises products or services. However, there are exemptions for sending unsolicited material. It is not a crime if there is prior consent from the recipient, the communication is an announcement from the sender to the users and if there is an easy and reliable way for the recipient to reject it, among other things.

Persons found guilty of unsolicited communication are faced with arrest by the mayor (1 month imprisonment and 1 day to 6 months imprisonment) or with a fine of at least P50,000 but no more than P250,000. It defines cybersquatting as acquiring a domain name in bad faith on the Internet or with the intention of profiting, misleading, destroying one’s reputation or depriving others of registering the same domain name. Computer- related forgery, fraud and identity theft is also covered by law.

 

References: https://technology.inquirer.net/34360/in-the-know-the-cybercrime-law